CASH ORDERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 131, 6 June 1939, Page 7

CASH ORDERS

ACTION BY N.S.W.

CONTROL AS MONEY-LENDING

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

' .' SYDNEY, May 36. Strict control of cash order firms and

definition of their" business as moneylending will be provided in a Bill shortly to be considered by the New South Wales Cabinet. Proposals include limitation of the interest to be charged on cash orders and elimination of' certain profits now made in addition to the actual interest charged. Inquiries made on behalf of the Government have shown that profits otn some cash orders amount to as*mucit as 50 per cent, per annum. The practice of canvassing for cash orders willbe made illegal by the new measure. The practice is growing and was tha subject of a questipn in Parliament recently, when it was revealed that agents call at suburban homes and persuade women to take cash orders without the consent of their husbands. Under the proposed Bill, cash order firms will ba required to carry on business only in a registered office. Hawking of cash orders from door to door will be prohibited. Interest on cash orders is mostly charged on a flat-rate basis, resulting in a high rate when calculated on a per annum basis. To keep a check on these rates, it is proposed to. empower a Court to review cash orders if requested, and to fix reasonable rates of interest. Official investigations have, shown, that it is a common practice for stores supplying goods for cash orders to give to the issuer of the order at least a month's credit before the order, is redeemed, all to the benefit of the issuer. Another practice revealed by the inquiry is that stores give issuers of cash orders a discount on the purchase price of goods. This discount, it is claimed, should properly go to the buyer of tha cash order. Clauses aiming at stopping these practices will be included.in the new Bill, which will be in the form of an amendment of the Moneylenders Act and will have the effect of making cash order firms, moneylenders in the eyes' of the law.